Steelers fan describes awful Super Bowl ticket experience
Feb 9, 2011, 11:56 PM | Updated: Feb 10, 2011, 1:35 am
PHOENIX – Dan Powell has been a die hard Steelers fan his whole life. His family has had season tickets since the early 70’s.
Powell was expecting to have the time of his life when he learned he had won the lottery that was held for Steelers season ticket holders to go to Super Bowl XLV.
He was going to the game with his brother who attends most of the games with him.
Powell’s father had gone to Super Bowls 10 and 13 and told his son that, “You have to go. This will be the time of your life.”
He and his brother had no idea the travails they would be in for.
The two arrived for the game with plenty of time knowing they would have to wait in the security line.
After getting through the almost two-hour checkpoint, Powell was told that his tickets were no longer valid and had to go to a resolution office on the other end of the stadium.
The problem was that temporary seats were supposed to be built for a couple hundred people, but were uncompleted and unsafe.
Powell and his brother left the stadium and raced to the office hoping for salvation.
They arrived and found hundreds of other angry people with the same problem.
After awhile, the group was told their tickets had been reactivated and they could go back to their seats.
Powell and his brother had to re-enter the security line which took about another 45 minutes to get through.
Upon arriving to their seats again, an usher informed them that their seats were still closed and were then instructed to head to a souvenir’s shop.
There an usher took a number of people down a freight elevator to a little bar in the basement where the group could watch the game on television.
The NFL has claimed that they took good care of the people who were stuck there.
However, Powell says that they weren’t even provided any food and if they wanted to get something to eat they would have to get back on the freight elevator and head to a higher level, but nobody did because they were expecting somebody from the NFL to come at any moment and take them to a seat to watch the game.
Finally, an NFL intern came down and approached Powell and others saying they would not get a seat for the game, but would be re-funded three times the ticket price and would get to watch next year’s Super Bowl in an awesome suite.
Powell estimates that he spent about $4,000 for all expenses over the weekend and getting $2,400 back for his ticket wouldn’t be fair.
Plus, he really had little desire to go to next year’s Super Bowl because the Steelers might not be playing in it.
Powell says the most frustrating part was to hear the NFL say afterward that the unlucky people had been taken care of.
“All I would like them to do is to pay my expenses for this previous weekend and put me on the list and say you can buy your tickets at face value the next time the Steelers are in the Super Bowl,” said Powell on the Sports 620 KTAR’s Gambo and Ash show on Wednesday.
Powell said he isn’t interested in suing at this point, but the NFL has been unreceptive to any of his ideas and is left wondering how a dream vacation turned into a nightmare.
